Page 49 of The Night Shift
‘I don’t want to know what you get up to with amphibians, darling,’ said Marvin, shuddering. ‘But do pop back in if you get a chance. I know you’re working but I do want regular updates on theLove Islandsituation.’
She smiled as she rose from her chair. ‘I’ll let you know if anything exciting happens,’ she said. ‘Although I can’t see how it can get much more exciting at the moment, not within the confines of the hospital at least.’ She leaned forward and kissed his forehead in the only available space that wasn’t bruised or bandaged. ‘Love you, Marv,’ she said, tears prickling suddenly at the back of her eyes. ‘I’m so glad you’re alright.’
He gave her a dismissive flick of the wrist. ‘Takes more than a few nasty boys with pocketknives to keep a bad-ass bitch like Madame Marvelarse down, darling. You don’t need to worry about me.’
‘I was worried though,’ she said. ‘We all were.’
‘I know,’ he said. ‘It means you care. Just like I do about you. Which is why…’
‘I know,’ she said. ‘Message received.’ She gave him a wave as she left the side room and made her way into the surgical ward corridor. The lights had been dimmed which meant it was likely now past nine o’clock. She really needed to crack on.
She was just scrolling through her list of jobs to make certain they didn’t have any medical outliers on this ward when she heard a vaguely familiar voice. Looking up, she saw the surgeon from the previous night, the one she’d fallen out with.
‘Dr Winters,’ he said. ‘It’s Barney, Barney Snell. We spoke yesterday.’ He didn’t look cross– more, amused? Violet wasn’t sure.
‘Of course. Mr Snell.’ She acknowledged him with an inclination of her head.
‘What are you doing on the surgical ward?’ he said. ‘Are you here to offer me further instruction as to how to consent patients properly? Or perhaps you thought I might need your assistance in theatre?’
She couldn’t tell whether he was joking or not until his face broke into a smile. ‘Don’t look so worried,’ he said, even though she was sure she hadn’t been looking worried. ‘I won’t bite you.’
‘That’s good of you,’ she said and made her way towards the exit.
‘Do you have a patient on here?’ he called after her. ‘We’ve got a couple of medical ones, I think. Often do when the surgical side of things is quiet after Christmas.’
‘No.’ She wasn’t especially keen to offer any further information but she was outside of her usual domain, she didn’t really know what the rules were for visiting patients after hours, even if you were a doctor working in the same hospital. ‘I, uhm– a friend of mine is here,’ she said. ‘I just popped in to say hello.’
‘Oh, right. No problem.’ He smiled pleasantly.
She turned to leave but the double doors had now locked electronically and she walked straight into them, thankfully breaking the impact with her wrist rather than her face. She stepped back embarrassed, scanning the surrounding wall for the release button.
‘Do you need a hand?’ Barney was close by her side in seconds. ‘Here,’ he said, reaching around her, his arm brushing past the front of her top as he pressed the switch. There was a slight delay and the doors swung open with a clunk.
‘There you go,’ he said, needlessly resting his hands on her shoulders to steer her towards the exit, as if she needed pointing in the right direction.
‘Erm, thanks,’ said Violet, shrugging herself out of his reach.
‘No problem.’ He looked her briefly up and down as he had the night before and raised his eyebrows appreciatively. ‘Always happy to help a damsel in distress.’
She fought the urge to shudder as she emerged into the wide central corridor. He had only been trying to help after all. She was the one who’d been incapable of exiting a ward with any degree of decorum, and he certainly didn’t owe her any level of chivalry after the way she’d spoken to him the previous evening– but honestly?Damsel in distress?Which century was he living in?
* * *
Later that evening, once she’d completed all the jobs on wards four, seven, nine and twelve, and clerked in two new patients who’d been transferred from MAU, Violet ended up on ward ten where Cindy had a list of drug chart amendments, bloods and a request to see Mrs Chambers who was feeling a little short of breath. Violet was pleased to see that the cannula she and Gus had sited in Mrs Chambers’ wrist was still operational and once she’d checked the observations chart, listened to her chest and reassured herself that the oxygen saturations, pulse and blood pressure were all stable she went to stick her head around the curtain of Mr Zeller’s bed and found him fast asleep.
‘How did the procedure go?’ she asked Cindy as she scrolled through his notes back at the nurses’ station.
‘I think as well as can be expected,’ Cindy said. ‘Although from what I can gather it’s not great news.’ She gestured towards the computer as Violet reached the page where the ERCP had been written up and they both scanned it together.
‘He wanted to talk to you about it,’ Cindy said. ‘Said you’d tell him straight. But he couldn’t stay awake– still pretty groggy from the anaesthetic.’
Violet saw the words ‘narrow stricture, invasive, multiple sites’, and then finally, ‘stenting unsuccessful– consider open laparotomy with pancreatectomy +/- hepatic lobectomy.’
‘Shit,’ she said. ‘You’re right. It’s as bad as we thought. They couldn’t get a stent in, it’s all too narrow– full of tumour. And seems it’s definitely in his liver if they’re considering removing part of that as well.’
‘Looks like the surgeons are going to have to be involved again?’ said Cindy.
Violet closed the page. ‘Only if Mr Zeller wants them to be,’ she said. ‘it doesn’t look from that op note as though anyone’s really convinced that major surgery would be curative. I expect they’ll discuss his case with the pathologists and go from there, but Mr Zeller may have other ideas. He won’t be bullied into something he doesn’t want.’
